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Thursday, August 30, 2012

I keep telling everyone that I do not make this stuff up. Crazy stories of pastors committing the most horrible acts are routine here at Deep Thoughts. Another outlandish story hit the news today. Pastor Greg Lamar Davis of Full Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta, was arrested for reckless conduct. It seems Davis, who is HIV positive, has allegedly engaged in unprotected sex with men and women. Some of his partners were church members, some were not.

Ronita McAfee said she met Davis on Facebook and began having an affair with the married pastor. She claimed Davis never notified her that he was HIV positive.

"Mr. Davis shows no regard for the human life as it relates to his HIV positive status and having sexual contact with men and/or women," McAfee wrote in an email to the website. "This email is only for informational purposes and to let the people of the church know because it is alleged that Mr. Davis has been sexually rampant in the church."

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A two weeks ago I posted on the arrest of Baptist pastor Anthony Smith. He had allegedly molested two young girls. It is a pretty sordid affair. The pastor of a influential black church in Compton allegedly commits horrible sexual acts on children. The church responds with outrage and removes him from the pulpit. That's not what happened though. Instead the rush to claim their positions in a long line of women who claimed to have slept with the pastor, among other things. It is unbelievable. if this is how Christians act, we should all run for the hills.

SMMFH @ ALL YOU WHO CLAIM HE BEEN DOING THIS, WHY THE FUCK YA'LL AIN'T BEEN SAID SOMETHING???? IT SOUNDS LIKE A BUNCH OF JEALOUSY, HATING BULLSHIT GOING ON IF YOU ASK ME... YEAH I FUCKED HIM B4 & IT WAS GOOD BUT THAT DNT HAVE SHIT TO DO WITH ME BELIEVING OR NOT BELIEVING THE RUMORS GOING AROUND.... HAVE A GREAT NIGHT

Shut up bitch! U fuck every and anything! No one is jealous of your hood rat ass! Only you would use the term FUCKED! Why? Cause that's all you're good for! That's why all your children have different fathers! Who knows? You probably can't distinguish who's kid is who! Smmfh @ u! Go sit down somewhere!

I watched Chris Christie's speech last night at the Republican National convention. Besides this weird feeling I had that he was speaking to a future audience, I was mystified by this quote, "Our ideas are right for America and their ideas have failed America." I pay close attention to politics these days. As of today I can truly say that I do not know what "our ideas" mean. On the important issues, all I hear are sound bites with no depth. It's impossible to look closely at Republican ideas because what they talk about is conceptual. There is no plan, or at least no plan that they are sharing. With Obama I know what the Democrats are planning. I may not agree with the plan, but at least I'm able to think about it. Why is it that Republicans don't want me to think?

I realize that one must have a thick skin to be in politics, but some behavior is beyond the pale, like photoshopping Michelle Obama's face on the torso of a bare breasted slave. I'm not sure if it's a political statement or supposed to be humors, but I can tell you that I am offended. I cannot imagine what our President and First Lady think.

For its part, the magazine lauds Michelle Obama as the "gran mujer" (great woman) behind her powerful husband.
"In the shadow of the U.S. President is a person whose popularity ratings exceed those of Barack’s own. This person is none other than his wife Michelle… To find out how Michelle has managed to seduce the American people . . . [we] detail the secrets of a woman has not [just] only won the heart of Barack Obama," an except reads.

Monday, August 27, 2012

There are few things worse than a vitriolic hater of all things gay, committing unthinkably amoral acts on children while hiding behind his faith. I can't help but pity the man. Caleb Hesse is a hypocrite and hater who has admitted to molesting a number of young boys in his capacity as a youth volunteer at the Evangelical Free Church of Yucca Valley.

According to KTLA, the incidents occurred mostly during Hesse’s overnight volunteer trips with the church. Hesse allegedly met many of his underage victims during these outings. Authorities believe the most recent crimes occurred as early as last week.

Held on a $2.5 million bail, Hesse has been charged with four felony counts of lewd acts with a child and was due in San Bernardino Superior Court on August 20.

I've had several conversations with a member of the First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, the parent church of the Yuca Valley branch. His church has a progressive approach to clergy sexual abuse, one in which an overnight outing with Hesse the hypocrite would be inconceivable. I wonder if the Yucca Valley branch of the church follows the same policies? I'll have to pull some strings and get a copy of their polices.

In an interesting twist, the church did the right thing after discovering the problem.

Bill Wilcox, pastor of Evangelical Free Church, said he drove Hesse to the sheriff’s station in Joshua Tree Wednesday morning after Hesse gave Wilcox “something of a confession.”

I am happy that pastor Wilcox drove Hesse to the police. It was the right thing to do. I have questions though. Was Hesse's confession spontaneous? Or, as I suspect, was the church investigating a sex abuse allegation? If it is the later, then investigating a charge inside the church (excluding law enforcement) is not something I support. It places the victim at risk and exposes the members of the church to a violent response from the accused. I understand that the intent is to protect the church, but the focus must be on protecting the victim. Take the allegation to the police first. Let the professionals deal with the issue.

Convicted child murder Charles Jaynes has seen the true and become a Wiccan. His fellow Wiccans are not so happy about this because child murders don't fit their nature worshiping social profile and Jaynes is a bad man. He is serving a life sentence for the 1997 slaying of Jeffrey Curley. I can't understand why other Wiccans would object. Especially since he is trying to change his name to Mannasseh-Invictus Auric Thutmose V. I prefer Willowblower Sunlove Hornbiter III, but nobody asked me.

Dana Corby, a Wiccan priestess and teacher of 40 years, said that if a Wiccan changes his name it is often a private thing kept separate from their personal lives.

“On the basis of my education and experience, I know that Charles Jaynes is either completely ignorant of Wicca or trying to pull a fast one,” said Corby.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Hypocrite is a strong word, but pastor Grant Storm, profiled here, deserves the title. Storms would march through New Orleans’ with a broom demonstrating against homosexuality and other obscenities. It was his thing. He was a Christian Patriot. Whatever the hell that is. Now he’s a convicted sex offender.

Storms, 55, who lives in Metairie, declined to comment after the conviction. Judge Ross LaDart of the 24th Judicial District Court, who presided over the daylong trial because Storms waived a jury, did not even break to deliberate. He promptly found Storms guilty of the single count of obscenity. He sentenced Storms to three years of probation, citing no evidence of a criminal history.

The judge was careful to make it clear that Storms was not a pedophile, and I agree. I’ll call him a pervert, liar and hypocrite instead. He likes to masturbate in parks. That’s pervert material for sure.

Youth pastor Corey Ray Weatherford, a Baptist, was arrested for sexually assaulting two teen girls in Arkansas. Weatherford is a youth pastor for Reynolds Baptist Church. As usual, there is no mention of the arrest on the website.

The probable cause affidavit said Weatherford, of 2904 North 4 1/2 Street, served as head counselor at the camp and his two alleged victims, ages 16 and 17, respectively, were youth junior counselors. Weatherford reportedly engaged in sexual activity with the 16-year-old once and deviant sexual activity with the 17-year-old on two occasions, according to the affidavit.

The age of consent in Arkansas is 16 if the perpetrator is above the age of 20. There must be an exemption for professional clergy. Yes. I found it. If you are an professional listed under Arkansas code 12012-507(b), then you are treated differently.

Any clergy member, which includes a minister, priest, rabbi, accredited Christian Science practitioner, or other similar functionary of a religious organization, or an individual reasonably believed to be so by the person consulting him or her, except to the extent he or she:

It looks like Arkansas is getting its act together. Which is great given there are people like Corey Ray Weatherford out there preying on our kids.

Are you joking me? You don't even know this man! And the articles ALL fail to talk about the 'victim' in this case and how she is crazy. She has been hospitalized many times for mental illnesses, her kids were taken away from her because she was deemed unfit to live with them, and she has accused her ex-husband AND husband of rape before. I'm pretty sure the victim here is not the woman at all, but the priest being accused of all of this!

I hate it when Christians blame the victim. Especially where there is clear evidence of abuse. This victim in this case deserves better.

Youth pastor Ronald Asplund will die in prison after being convicted of molesting two young boys. His sentence was 11 years and four months to life in prison. Considering his doctor gives him one to three years to live, it is a fair bet that we will never see this pedophile pastor again.

Msgr Willam Lynn was sentenced to three to six years in prison for his part in covering up the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal in Philadelphia. Lynn was shuffling priests around to hide abuse. He was convicted of endangering the welfare of a child.

Pastor Kenneth L. Miller was convicted for aiding and abetting the flight of Lisa A. Miller and her daughter Isabelle Miller-Jenkins in 2009. Miller thought he was doing the right thing by helping a woman flee a lesbian child custody dispute. He was wrong. He faces up to three years in prison. I hope he serves his full sentence.

That’s it for this week. If you know of a conviction and would like to help, please post about in the comments or send me an email.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Baptist pastor Kelvin B. Lambert was arrested for invasion of privacy and trespass. Lambert was caught peeping into a bathroom window while a woman may have been showing.

According to court documents, Platte County Sheriff’s Department deputies were called to the Timber Park neighborhood near Platte City at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday. A witness had reported a man running between houses.

The witness told authorities that she saw a man standing on a plastic lawn chair peering into the bathroom window.

At this stage in my blogging career I’ve come to realize a few things. The first is simple. I am not a joiner. I prefer blogging because it’s just me. I’ve written almost six thousand posts over the years on all manner of subjects. I don’t join in the wider movement by participating in atheist and free thought events because I’m antisocial by nature. I have to work at being social. I spent most of my energy being social at work. I have little energy left to give once the work day is done.

What few events I have attended are usually populated by jackasses like Bruce Gleason, whose Backyard Skeptics is tearing up bibles down at the Huntington Beach Pier this weekend. Bruce has an agenda I do not understand and appears to be focused on gathering as much media attention to his hateful antics as possible. Plus, every event I attend seems to be a backhanded fund raising effort, even simple meet ups. I just want to have a beer and talk to a few other atheists without the added burden of a hidden agenda.

I keep plugging along though. I plan on having a few beers with a bunch of brucesless atheists next week. It should be a hoot.

Another thing I’ve learned is that I hate politics and dissention, which seems to be the only thing happening in the free thought movement at the moment. It’s a shame too. I’m a huge fan of Freethought blogs and Skepchick, I died a little inside over the whole Thunderfoot insanity, and a little bit more of the sexual harassment blow up at TAM. What the fuck people? Are we seriously debating the need for a policy? A policy is required along with whatever else is needed to ensure the misogynists among us do not ruin everything. And by ruin everything I mean silence the voices of our intelligent and insightful female atheists and free thinkers. I want to hear their voices, so do a lot of other people. To quote the late Rodney King, “Can’t we just all get along?”

Freethought blogs puts out a lot of good content. I love good content. Take the recent post, Fuck you, Florida by Crommunist. It made me angry over the stupidity that passes for Republican strategy in Florida. Making me angry is a good think… it feeds my desire to write.

The campaign against Amy Davis Roth by Jason Thibeault is another great post and one that makes me scratch my head in wonder. Why is it that we are feeding on ourselves? How does this craziness help the movement? I had thought Ross a wonderful voice for reason until the whole DCMA takedown affair was linked to her. Now I’m on the fence. Her efforts feel wrong.

“I was uhhh ... hot ... I like to drive around naked,” Petroske said, according to the report, then adding, “… I don’t know what to say. … I’m embarrassed.”

We’ve all been there. Well, perhaps not naked and drunk behind the wheel of a car, but we’ve all been embarrassed a hell by something we’ve done. I’m for cutting Petroske some slack. He’s not my normal target.

The church is doing the right thing.

The Archdiocese of Detroit released a statement Tuesday confirming that Petroske had been indefinitely suspended, including the mandate that he is not to be on school or church grounds during the ongoing investigation.

Jeffrey Mackintosh, 46, now of Phillipsburg, was arrested at his home Thursday and charged aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, and endangering the welfare of a child, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

I'm sorry, but this church was terrible! The songs were the only thing I liked. This poor Maiden of Dawn had to play all of the songs on the piano, with NO OTHER INSTRUMENTS! I felt so bad. Then they made me stand up and say my name, I felt like I was being forced. The pastor's rough ways of moving the service; I was there when a woman was denied access to the pulpit when her mother saw an angel in the sanctuary. In my opinion, it must have left after that. The people in the church suffer under this pastor's iron fist and obbsession with ORDER. The spirit of the LORD can't live in that place. Micaicah.

I find it odd that superstition and ignorance still rule our lives. Take the case of Moss Bluff Elementary school which is trying to implement a biometric palm reader to manage it school lunch program. Local Christians are protesting. They think it is the biblical Mark of the Beast.

Sonnier says she's against the palm vein scanner because of her beliefs.

"As a Christian, I've read the Bible, you know go to church and stuff," said Sonnier. "I know where it's going to end up coming to, the mark of the beast. I'm not going to let my kids have that."

He says the system isn't on campus yet, so students' palms won't be scanned any time soon. But Sonnier says if the program comes to campus, her children aren't participating and won't be around it either.

"I'd probably pull them out of the school, and transfer them to another school," said Sonnier.

So here is the thing… biometric hand scanning devices are an effective why of linking people to an event. The most common use is in time clocks. Let’s call it a ubiquitous option which has been available for years. It requires no extra hardware, no badges, and does not even touch the participant. You simply establish a baseline image, and then scan against it. It’s very much like the lunch lady remembering your face when you pass her in line, only the device does not make mistakes.

Come on people. There is no Mark of the Beast in this story, there is the Mark of the Stupid instead.

Father Angel Armando Perez, a 46-year-old Catholic priest at Saint Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, was arrested earlier this week for allegedly fondling a 12-year-old boy. I waited a few days to post this story because I had a feeling people would have a lot to say about this case. I was right too. What Perez is accused of doing is so outrageous that it sounds like a made for TV movie. Here is the story:

An irresponsible mother allowed her son to spend the night alone with a local Catholic priest. The priest, Angel Perez, alleged gave the boy beer while they watched TV together. After the boy passed out on an air mattress, the priest fondled the boy and took photos with his camera phone. The boy woke up during the abuse and fled the house. The priest followed in his underwear. A local man protected the boy from the priest and made sure he got back to his family. The priest went to the victims house, admitted his crime, and then begged forgiveness. The priest later claimed he was too drunk to remember what he had done but not too drunk to drive the victims house. You can read the whole story here.

The mother said she is still in shock, but that she is proud of how quickly her son got away from a bad situation.

Immediately after the incident, the boy ran from the priest’s Woodburn house while Perez chased him down the street in his underwear, the court record states. Residents standing outside at the time took the boy to his sister’s house, where he told her “Father Angel touched me in my privates,” according to court documents.

I think the mother and father are idiots. Who leaves their children with a priest these days? Who lets their kids go on an un-chaperoned overnight trip with a priest? It’s like they served up the boy as a meal for a hungry pedophile. I don’t care if the mother taught her son what to do if somebody touched his privates, she should have taught her son that a priest is likely to be the person that does the touching. I hope the victim will come to know that his parents are just as much to blame for what happened to him as the priest.

The priest has a high-powered lawyer, which is good because he will need somebody to broker his sentencing. Of course, Archdiocese of Portland is paying for it, which makes no sense at all.

Angel Perez has hired attorney Marc Blackman and the Archdiocese of Portland has made him an open-ended loan to pay for the legal fees according to The Oregonian.

Good Catholics should rejoice in knowing that their donations are going towards defending an alleged pedophile.

It's not the church, it's the wolves in sheeps clothing. People pray on the young the innocent and the weak, in churches and out of churches. There are more headline news of child rape and molestation out of the church than in. Look around you, bad stuff happens everywhere and they will get judgement in this life or the next.

I'm in a line of work that I see this daily don't judge the church as a whole judge the sick individuals that cause this confusion

Of course we know the is no such thing as “the church”, there are only people who act in the name of their church. When they act by molesting children, if paints all members with a corrupt brush. Especially if it is your pastor…

tt says…

PEOPLE WILL USE ANY KIND OF NEGATIVITY TO EXPLOIT THE CHURCH....STICK TO THE POINT. A FEW BAD APPLES DON'T SPEAK FOR EVERYONE THERE. NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO THERE'S BAD PEOPLE WE LIVE IN A SICK WORLD, FAR WORSE WITHOUT GOD. IT'S STILL NO EXCUSE TO GIVE UP ON MORALS AND TRUTH. JUST MEANS IT'S A SIGN THAT THE END IS HERE AND WE SHOULD BE ASKING OURSELVES WHO'S ON THE LORDS SIDE?

We are not exploiting the church. Don’t be silly. We are simply saying that your pastor, the guy who taught you all about values and morals, apparently has none of his own. That make your understanding of morality flawed.

Baptist Pastor Anthony Lavon Smith was arrested for allegedly molesting two girls, one of whom was 11. The abuse took place over several years.

Anthony Lavon Smith, 47, of Rialto was taken into custody at Carter High School about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday while he was picking up a family friend, police Capt. Randy DeAnda said.

"We do believe that there are other victims at his church, and we'll be contacting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detective bureau to let them know about our investigation," DeAnda said.

Smith has been a pastor at Jericho Baptist Assembly in Compton since April 2001, following in the footsteps of his father, Willie L. Smith, who also preached at the church, according to the church's website.

In an odd twist to an already sordid story, an additional person was charged with sexual assault and indecency with a child. LaDonna Bracken, the church secretary, turned herself in. The abuse allegedly happened at her house. With the nature of the charges, I wonder if that means she participated in the abuse?

The Freestone County Times is also reporting that LaDonna Brackens was arrested and charged with the same allegations.

The details of how she may have participated in the crime aren't clear, but she turned herself in today. A church member who says Brackens also has ties to this church. She served as a secretary there and worked with the youth.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Pastor Andrea Lewis of the Act on Faith Ministries, was arrested on three counts of molestation of a juvenile.

Nearly two decades after the onset of a relationship, a Shreveport woman has come forward to police about a sexual relationship she had with her pastor, while she was only 13-years-old. In a tearful interview with KSLA News 12, a woman who claims Lewis took advantage of her recounts how the inappropriate relationship started and why she decided to come forward years later.

Pastor Lewis ran a storefront church. Alarm bells should go off in the heads of anyone walking through the doors. I don't care if it's the poor catering to the poor. You must have some standards. Instead, we have alleged abuse running over years. We also have additional victims.

I am sure to hear that Lewis was no pastor when Christians post on my blog. His church is a cheap and ill kept storefront. He runs it as a business. I'll bet is that he has no formal or accredited religious education either. Real Christians will point out the obviously runs it as a business. Lewis is running a scam. A fool can see that. BeforeChristians start to pontificate here I want to be clear; unless you call him out before the abuse, you don't get to kick him off your team after.

Christians should be calling out the dangerous and ineffective operations that are setup to feed on people. Police your own. The government should also set standards from granting tax exempt status to churches like this one, or better yet, get rid of the tax exempt status all together.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Evans was given a slap on the wrist for molesting a 15-year-old girl. He was released in June of 2011 after serving less than a year in jail. I'm thinking he did not learn his lesson.

He's protected by rabid parishioners.

TO ALL THAT LEFT A MESSAGE ON HERE THE PASTOR DIDNOT PLEAD GUILTY. HE PLEADED NO CONTEST. SO BEFORE YOU JUDGE LOOK AT YOUR SELF.THE BIBLE SAYS "ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD" . JUST LIKE HE FORGAVE YOU HE WILL FORGIVE HIM. ANDTHEBACON FAMILY STILL WILL BE BLESSED!!!!!

or

Will yall stop making things worst. This was broardcast nationwide. And he will be in the media again. It's more girls..oh you already know that. Its nothing new to the bacon family.

or

for 1 this is my grand father and just as wrong as he is for tlkn to this little girl she is just as wrong for messing with a 60 year old man, he did not force her to do anything..i love my grand father and idc wat anybody has to say, the parents of that 15 year old girl should beat her ass!! trust he's not the only grown man she was/is messing with!!!

I need help with this case as it is not being reported in the press. Anybody with information, please post it in the comments. I'll move it to the front page as appropriate.

I get an email or two each month from the victims of clergy sexual abuse. I normally do not post them on my blog because the conversations are private the victims do not want them in the public domain. I respect their wishes and do what I can to help them. The most common request is simply to read their stories or to thank me for caring enough to write about their abusers.

Pastor William Procanick was convicted of molesting a 7-year-old girl in 2008 and sentenced to three years in prison. He should be out prison by now. The mother of the victim was vilified by the members of Procanick’s church. The girl herself was attacked as part of a plot to extract money from the pastor and his church. I received emails and comments telling me I was an ass for covering the case. I never really doubted the abuse happened. In many cases I report on, pastors are opportunistic abusers. They pounce on children in need and especially those coming from questionable situations, like the victim in this case. Her mom was allegedly an addict and destitute. Plus, Procanick admitted to touching her.

The victim, now 12, posted on my blog this morning. She wonders why people, this would be people from the church, still do not believe she was abused. She was seven at the time of the abuse. It blows my mind that Christians would still support the pastor and accuse the child. It breaks my heart too. This is the unedited text of the victim’s post:

I am the one this happened to,I am 12 now and turning 13 this year.He what they call "molesting" did that to me. I DONT KNOW why someone in fact would make that up. If they helped my mother so much and all what some of you say why would she want me to make something so bad up about him to hurt him and his family?... I know him as Bill Procanick I remember his german sheperd Gewls I remember his other dog he got I was in his basment saidy when he got her I remember he had 3 daughters. I could tell you what his bedroom and house looked like.he lived down the road from me and me and my sister stayed there alot.YES they did help us alot but i would never lie about something so serious. Becuase it was true. Especially if i knew that it would hurt them and there family.They helped my mom alot but if that didnt happen what he did to me I wouldnt lie about it. At first I told my mom he didnt do anything I didnt know or understand what he did was wrong.But I told her what he did because she didnt stop asking me she noticed I acted diffrent around him and she was doing what any other mother would was questioning her daughter I started to have night mares also about him. I didnt understand why but that night I was having trouble sleeping I was in his bedroom infront of his bed laying on the floor.They had company so he was not with me my sister was in one of his daughters rooms . I went out where they where in the living room and told them i couldnt sleep they told me that he would come in a minute in fact he did not really in a minute maybe more then a minute and then he touched me ways he shouldn't have I dont think I should explain to you people what he did to me because thats not nessecary if you didnt witness it you cant say it didnt happen.I remember still to this day and in fact I do FORGIVE him but you can forgive but you could NEVER forget. It really hurts me to see that some people dont believe me and talk soo much crap about my mom like that is her business I dont get how that can have any reason for her to want me to make something so horrible up like seriously DUDE get a life and mind your business . You may ask why I am on this looking up him and reading these comment I still have the news paper with the artical somewhere in my house and I DONT know why I looked his name up and searched for him I guess I just wanted to know what people think of this and how they react .Well dont believe me whatever im not saying you have to im just saying I told the TRUTH! & Its pathetic that you people would think I would make something so serious up , it sucks because I always thought he was a good man . He ruined all the trust & faith me & my family put into him . Now because of that , I have trust issues . What he did may not seem true or serious to you guys but i'm scarred for the rest of my life because of what that man did to me . Even though my mother hasn't & doesn't always make the right choices shes the best mother she can be , her past is the past. You guys are just trying to find an excuse to why it was right for him to touch me . & it wasn't he got what he deserved & hopefully he learned from it. But you guys can think what you want he knows what he did was wrong & he confessed .

Life is real in my neighborhood. If it is not Christians giving me hell for writing about clergy sexual abuse, it’s victims asking for help. Please visit the post and drop a note of support for the victim.

Monday, August 13, 2012

I was reading this post on Reddit this morning. It is titled, “Jesus calls us to help the poor, why is this not a priority?” by Chicanobean. It got me thinking; if America is a majority Christian country and a key principle of Christianity is helping the poor, does it not stand to reason that no homeless person would be homeless because of need? 80% of American’s identify with a religious denomination. 36% go to church nearly every week. Why do we have homeless people if Christians are supposed to be dedicating themselves to helping the poor?

I have a few theories.

Christians are taught how to worship instead how to be Christians. I see this all the time. Going to church is more important the living the principles taught by Christ.In fact, the social interaction of going to church is the sole purpose of the whole experience.

Christians confuse tithing with helping the poor. I explained to a friend recently that tithing is how a church pays for its operations. After all expenses are paid, what is left can by used for charity work. Jesus told you to sell all your possession, not drop a $20 in the collection plate.

Christians follow the wrong doctrine. The whole, “God wants you to be rich” mindset is a great example of how an unscrupulous pastor can corrupt the message of Christ. Getting rich helps you. Jesus wanted you to help others.

Christians are fighting social causes that are politically motivated rather than biblical. This is one of my pet peeves. Stop try to tell others how to live and focus on living the principles that Jesus instead. Your house is a mess. Clean it up and set an example for others to follow. And… You are all wrong on the gay marriage thing anyway. Jesus did not tell you to stop Paul and Tom from marrying. He told you to care for the poor.

I’ve started a new feature here on Deep Thoughts. It’s called Clergy Convictions. A few of my readers have asked that I start tracking convictions in addition to arrests. Convictions are harder to track because the press does not cover them as well as they do arrests. I plan to post an updated list each Monday.

Local pastor, wife convicted of tax fraud. Pastor David Montgomery and his wife Bridget were convicted of tax fraud. they face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Montgomery was the pastor at Restoration Temple Church of God in Christ in the city of Humble. A word of advice to the members of this fine church. If your pastor drives a Bentley, you are doing it wrong.

Former Pastor Sentenced On Sexual Battery Charges. Pastor John t. Vine was sentenced to 22 years in prison for molesting a 12-year-old girl. Vine was the pastor at Faith United Church in North Nashville. Another victim has come forward with abuse allegations.

South Boston pastor arrested on child porn charges. Reverend Andrzej Urbaniak entered a guilty plea to charges that he possessed and distributed child pornography. Urbaniak was a pastor at Our Lady of Czestochowa where he served the local Polish community.

That’s it for this week. If you would like to help, please send me an email.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

I'm beginning to think Jeremy Caraway might not be too smart. If you type his name into Google, my post on his arrest is the first item in the list. It only takes is a few moments to figure out that Caraway is awaiting trial on a charge that he molested a 14-year-old girl. How dumb do you have to be to offer child care services from your home in an advertisement on Craig's List?

A woman in Mobile, Alabama says she was searching Craigslist for childcare for her special needs son.

That's where she found Monica Caraway.

"She had a husband that was a preacher. She was talking about how she had a good Christian family. She had kids of her own. This woman seemed the nicest of the nice," said the Alabama mother of a special needs child.

The mother says when Monica Caraway's background came back clean, she googled Jeremy Caraway. That's when she found much more than she'd bargained for. Caraway was arrested in May of last year on rape, sodomy and enticing a child.

I'm betting Deep Thoughts played a part in preventing another case of child abuse. My blog scrolls by in a news report describing the case.

Can you imagine? Placing your special needs child into daycare with a Christian woman who does not disclose that her alleged pedophile pastor of a husband has a child molestation case pending? If it sounds unethical, that's because it is.

I have to add this to my WWJD list. It is a perfect example of the type of behavior we do not expect from Christians, yet there is is again.

I am happy they saved his life. This rat bastard must live each day of his potentially 80-year-long sentence. It is the least he can do given the abuse he forced on his 15-year-old victim. He must pay for his crimes.

Using his connections with Glade Central High School's football program, the disgraced minister lured the boy with phony promises of introductions to professional football scouts and trainers, prosecutor said.

Harris forced the boy to perform sex acts on him twice and, on a separate occasion, filmed the boy masturbating while a porn film played in the background, according to the Sun Sentinel.

James Harris belongs in prison. Let's hope he never sees freedom again.

I tend to post on clergy sexual abuse and bypass the rest of the arrests that clog my inbox. This one caught my eye though. It involves a pastor, his adult daughter, a handgun, and of course, the cops.

A Beaver County pastor is facing charges that he assaulted his grown daughter during a family fight Thursday morning in Raccoon Creek State Park, state police said.

The Rev. Darrell Cashdollar, 59, was carrying a gun in a wooded area of the park, so rangers called state police to the scene. Police monitored the area with helicopters and set up a perimeter until the incident de-escalated.

Pastor Cashdollar… wtf? Cashdollar was charged with simple assault and harassment plus his carry permit was revoked. Cashdollar works at the Paris Church of the Nazarene in Burgettstown, Washington County, Pa. I'm betting he's standing in front of his church right now. Slapping your daughter around is biblical, right?

This is one of those stories that should not be. Youth pastor Kris Allan Gowdy was arrested for trying to lure an underage boy into a sexual encounter. He did not realize that he was communicating with a law enforcement officer who was posing as a young boy. It was a mistake that will cost him his freedom and save the lives his future victims. Gowdy is HIV positive. I'm betting his illicit sexual encounter had nothing to do safe sex.

Durham Regional Police claim the 42-year-old Newcastle man, who allegedly used collegetoy2033 as his profile name, befriended the teen online not knowing the boy was actually an undercover Internet Child Exploitation unit officer.

“Investigators met the accused at the prearranged location and after being taken into custody, it was determined (he) is a youth pastor with the (Trulls Road) Free Methodist Church in Courtice, Ontario, and has travelled extensively over the last decade,” Det. Randy Norton said Friday.

Gowdy's Church was quick to distance themselves from their pastor as the abuse did not happen at their church. Gowdy preferred to shop online for victims. The fear is that this incident was not his first, but simply where he was caught. His church is wrong though. They own a piece of this. I feel sorry for them in a way. Each member of their youth group needs to be questioned about things no child should have to contemplate. All because their youth pastor appears to be a monster.

Update 8/11/2012: According the a press release from Free Methodist Church in Courtice, Growdy has not been employed at the church since 2009.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Another Baptist pastor was arrested for sexual assault of a child. This time in Texas. Wait. I say arrested in Texas a lot these days. There must be something in the water down there.

FAIRFIELD (August 10, 2012)—Freestone County pastor Anthony Lynn Thibodeaux, 36, of Mexia, was in the Freestone County Jail Friday afternoon after his arrest earlier in the day on warrants charging sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child.

Thibodeaux, who is pastor of the Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church in Freestone County and who also works for the State of Texas, was arrested early Friday afternoon in neighboring Limestone County, Freestone County Sheriff Ralph Billings said.

Atheist Revolution has an interesting post about findings that point towards clergy being more dangerous sex offenders than the larger population. It's worth a read.

As Stop Baptist Predators recently reported, this evidence exists. Male clergy accused of sex crimes were found to be more dangerous in some important ways than matched non-clergy offenders (Langevin, Curnoe, & Bain, 2000). And religiosity was positively associated with the number of convictions for sex crimes and the number of victims among convicted male sex offenders (Eshuys & Smallbone, 2006). It was also inversely related to the age of the victims (i.e., more religious offenders tended to victimize younger children).

As vjack points out in his article, I am often asked if clergy sexual abuse is worse than abuse by others. I don't really have scientific or statistical proof to back my thinking, but I've always though it likely. Clergy are trusted members of society and are therefore granted special privileges, including less oversight and undeserved trust. Plus, parishioners are slow to believe anything that will cast doubt on their pastors as it is perceived as casting doubt on their church. I've seen too many examples of a church circling the wagons to prevent damage to their institution while children are pushed aside and clergy are shuffled. It is modus operandi for Baptist churches, and as we've seen, the Catholic church has institutionalized the practice.

The latest teacher/student sex scandal comes out of Texas. San Antonio police arrested 27-year-old Victoria Ann Chacon after a 14-year-old boy's parents found two pictures of the math teacher on a cell phone in his possession. The parents found out that the cell phone belonged to the teacher.

The tips I get are hilarious. Raymond Roland Collette allegedly likes to smell stinky sneakers; not just any stinky sneaker mind you, but a 13-year-old girl’s stinky sneakers. That’s where he screwed up. It’s against the law to solicit 13-year-old girls for stinky foot sex on Craigslist. You would think they taught him that lesson at City on the HIll Church in St. Petersburg where he works as a media director.

One of my pet peeves with hip churches these days is that they all about the worship experience and not at all about behavior. If a member of the staff is this sick, it has to say something about the culture of the church.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

I have a label called Hypocrisy Watch. It's what I should have named this blog long ago when I first started out, but I never intended to become a blogger. Deep Thoughts was originally my tribute to Jack Handy. I was so innocent back in 2004. Almost 6,000 posts later and Hypocrisy Watch is my favorite tag. It has over 1,400 posts, all of which deal with hypocrisy or clergy sexual abuse.

I typically don't follow the the sexual abuse cases of people who are not in the clergy. There are too many of them to track and I don't have the time to capture the sources and write the story. Payton Early Bostwick caught my attention though. He's a Sunday school teacher who allegedly raped a 10 year old relative. I planned on posting the story because of the level of hypocrisy involved in the alleged crime. A Sunday school teacher by day, a child rapist by night. It was irresistible. The man and the alleged crime are perfect examples of Christian hypocrisy. It gets better. Bostwick is an associate pastor at Lighthouse Pentecostal Church. That makes him a viable target, so he joins the Clergy Sex Abuse clan with the rest of the hypocrites.

Bostwick is charged with a slew of crimes.

Bostwick was arrested on Wednesday, July 11, 2012 and charged with child molestation, aggravated child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, first degree cruelty to children, aggravated sodomy and aggravated sodomy of a minor.

It's important to keep an open mind, but the case does not look good. The police took their time building a case. The victim was under the age of 10 when the abuse started. Bostwick looks like a typical family predator and pedophile. Court is a long way off. He's bonded out for now. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Bryan Fisher is the Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association. His title sounds important and implies some deep knowledge on complex issues, but his positions are simple. He is a bigot and the hate that spews from his mouth is focused on our gay community. It’s hard to understand how any person educated at Stanford could issue these hate fill rants, but he manages to do so on a regular basis.

He supports some odd positions, the worst is his support for the AIDS denial movement. A group which supports a view that rejects the existence of HIV and denies that HIV is the cause of AIDS. Supporting this position should be enough to have him blacklisted as a nutball, but no, he enjoys a wide audience through a radio program he hosts called Focal Point and a blog called Rightly Concerned. Fisher is also responsible for a gay witch hunt that resulted in the resignation of Richard Grenell from Mitt Romney's campain. A low point in our 2012 election cycle.

Fisher is an anti-gay activist who believes being gay is a choice. His normal targets are gay couples who adopt children. This quote sums him up. “A rational culture that cares about its people will, in fact, discriminate against adultery, pedophilia, rape, bestiality, and yes, homosexual behavior.” He wants to inject this viewpoint into the Republican Party. Fisher is a dangerous man.

Fischer's most recent statement is a brazen example of misguided Christian moral activism. His August 7th tweets called for establishing an underground railroad to “deliver innocent children from same-sex households.” He is serious about this position too. His rhetoric could cause enormous harm to the gay community. Like most bat shit crazy anti-gay comments, this one is getting a lot of play on the internet. The consensus from the atheists community is clear. He simply must be confronted and if possible stopped.

I don’t know if I’m more upset by a great American hero like Harriet Tubman being linked in some way to Fishers’ evil plans, or that thousands of happily adopted children are at risk because of Fischers antics. Okay… I’ll just put this out there. If Fischer or his cronies start kidnapping kids, I’ll be part of the millions of Americans who rise up to go looking for them. Yes. I am that upset by this. Fischer is a bully. I hate bullies.

Bryan Fischer has said a few other things that can shed some light on his idiocy.

Fischer is an opportunist hater ready to use any new item to push his anti-gay agenda. Why does anybody listen to him?

Fischer went all in during an interview today. He says, "We must obey God's law, not man's law". He went on to advocate for other to start an underground railroad and kidnap the adopted children of gay parents. He called for others to commit a crime in the name of God. It's stunning.

I write about hypocrisy and atheism for a reason. The majority of Americans are Christian and have no problem pushing their moral vision down on me. This includes all sorts of Christians who assume I am amoral and therefore untrustworthy simply because I do not share their faith. I also write about atheism because of actual discrimination i have experienced in my life, and the discrimination my atheists friends have experienced across America. Don't don't get me started on legislated morality. I should be able to buy beer on a hot Sunday morning in Waco, Texas if I choose too. The local Baptists should not be able to dictate my lifestyle. I don't rant much, but this stuff worries me. An article called 4 Reasons Atheists Have to Fight for Their Rights by Greta Christina, captures my concerns far better than I could. Give it a read.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Dr. Shine a.k.a Robert J. Freeman is a liar and a religious conman. He was recently sentenced to 27 months in prison for fraud. Freeman made his living as a televangelist. He also bilked friends and followers out of millions of dollars in pursuit of a rich lifestyle.

A Maryland pastor and longtime televangelist, Robert J. Freeman, a.k.a Dr. Shine, is going to jail for 27 months and was ordered to pay $630,000 to four church members. The Washington Post reports that the ‘Gods Top Gun of deliverance’ pastor lied to bankruptcy courts and hid the church’s assets in order to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts.

Freeman, 56, also convinced church members to take out loans for his multiple cars and $1.75 million waterfront home with five fireplaces, a jet-ski lift and two four-car garages. When the church could not cover the bills, church members were on the hook for the debt, and in some cases lost their homes and jobs.

This fraud ran a ministry which was focused on collecting as much cash as possible from the black community. He preyed on them. He might as well have turned them upside down by the ankles and shook the money out. He managed to finically ruin many of those who supported him while at the same time he lived like a king in an enormous mansion. HIs followers even continued to supported him after his first conviction even though they knew he had lied in court. I don't know how to describe this kind of crazy. It actually blows my mind. Are people really this stupid?

Freeman and his corrupt Save the Seed Ministry are the among the worst examples of the prosperity gospel run amok. In the end his owe words convict him.

Freeman argued that in regards to the money from the church members, he was purchasing the luxury items for the benefit of the church. “I did all this publicly,” Freeman told the judge in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. “There wasn’t nothing shady about it.”

Right. You misapropriated millions of dollars worth of cash to finance your personal lifestyle "for the benefit of the church." Did he actually think anyone with a rational mind would believe him?

You can watch an intro to Freeman's ministry here (warning! Hilarious), or watch his crazy wife Dee Dee pitch her crap at a Women of Faith conference. I am untitled to the good life… what?